Dartmouth’s Indian wars: The view from North Dakota

Last weekend Grand Forks Herald reporter Joe Marks traveled to Dartmouth to cover Dartmouth’s Indian wars, in which the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux have become a protagonist. At Dartmouth’s invitation the Fighting Sioux will be participating in the hockey tournament to be held at Dartmouth at the end of this month. UND takes on Dartmouth on December 29.
Marks wouldn’t have visited Hanover if Dartmouth athletic director Josie Marks hadn’t published a letter apologizing to Dartmouth Native American students for inviting UND to participate in the tournament, and for every other alleged wrong ever committed by Dartmouth against Native Americans. I wrote about Harper’s letter in “Mood Indian.” Marks’s Herald story on the controversy today is here. Marks called me for a comment in light of I’ve written on Power Line about the controversy and quotes me in the story.
Marks’s story is remarkably straight down the line, if not sympathetic to Dartmouth. One element of the controversy that in my view aggravates the wrong Dartmouth has done to the University of North Dakota is that the governor of North Dakota — the estimable John Hoeven — is a Dartmouth alum (class of ’79, along with trustee Peter Robinson). The Herald’s package on the controversy includes the letter Dartmouth President James Wright has written to UND president Charles Kupchella responding to President Kupchella’s letter and a sidebar on President Wright’s call to Governor Hoeven. Marks reports:

Monday, Dartmouth’s president told Hoeven that “it was not Dartmouth’s intent to get UND tied into the issues on” Dartmouth’s campus, Hoeven spokesman Don Larson said.
The governor appreciated the call, Larson said.